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Cooperation in Southern 
Communities 

Su^ested Activities for County and 
City Inter- racial Committees 



Edited by 

T. J. WOOFTER, JR. 

and 

ISAAC FISHER 



Copyrighted by 



Commission on Inter-racial Cooperation 

417 Palmer Building 

Atlanta, Ga. 









PUB LIS 
AUG 5 'If 



ir 



o </- 1 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

INTRODUCTION— By T. J. Woofter, Jr., and Isaac Fisher 9 



SECTION I. EDUCATION. 

1. Improving Rural Schools — James H. Dillard, Director 
Anna T. Jeanes Fund and Slater Fund 21 

2. City Schools— T. J. Woofter, Jr 23 

3. More Knowledge and Sympathy — D. C. Barrow, Chan- 
cellor, University of Georgia 24 

4. The Press— James Nevin, Editor, The Atlanta Georgian.. 27 



SECTION II. Church Co-operation— Bishop R. E. Jones, New 

Orleans 30 



^SECTION III. Economic Justice— R. R. Moton, Principal Tus- 

kegee Institute 33 



SECTION IV. Health and Housing— Howard W. Odum, Uni- 
versity of North Carolina 41 



SECTION V. Protection and Legal Aid — Edwin Mims, Van- 

derbilt University 45 

SECTION VI. Recreation. 

1. Rural Recreation — Ludwig T. Larsen, Mississippi State 
Inter-Racial Secretary 50 

2. City Recreation — B. T. Harvey, Jr., Morehouse College.. 54 



SECTION VII. Care of Dependents — Burr Blackburn, Secre- 
tary Georgia Department of Public Welfare 57 



SECTION VIII. Care of Delinquents— G. Croft Williams, Di- 
rector South Carolina State Board of Public Welfare 60 



3 



COMMISSION ON INTER-RACIAL COOPERATION 

LIST OF MEMBERS AS OF OCTOBER 1, 1921 

John J. Eagan, Chairman. 

Will W. Alexander, Director. 

R. H. King, Associate Director. 

Mrs. Luke Johnson, Director Woman's Work. 

E. Darden Borders, Treasurer. 

ALABAMA 

Dr. R. H. McCaslin, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church.... Montgomery 

Hon. John D. Rather, Attorney Tuscumbia 

Mrs. J. H. Cranford, Member Woman's Continuation 

Committee Jasper 

Mr. C. J. Jackson, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Birmingham 

Dr. R. R. Moton, President, Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee 

ARKANSAS 

Dr. J. H. Reynolds, President, Hendrix College Conway 

Mr. John L. Hunter, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Little Rock 

FLORIDA 

GEORGIA 

Mr. John J. Eagan, Manufacturer Atlanta 

Dr. Plato Durham, Minister and Professor, Emory University, Atlanta 
Dr. M. Ashby Jones, Pastor, Ponce de Leon Baptist Church....Atlanta 

Dr. C. B. Wilmer, Rector, St. Luke's Episcopal Church Atlanta 

Mrs. J. D. Hammond, Director So. Pub. Bureau, Central Islip, N. Y. 
Dr. Will W. Alexander, Director, Commission on Inter-Racial 

Co-operation Atlanta 

Mr. R. H. King, Regional Director, International Committee 
Y. M. C. A., Associate Director, Commission on Inter- 
Racial Co-operation Atlanta 

Hon. E. Marvin Underwood, Attorney Atlanta 

Mr. Walter B. Hill, State Dept. of Education Atlanta 

Mr. B. G. Alexander, Regional Director, International Commit- 
tee Y. M. C. A Denver, Colo. 

Mrs. Luke Johnson, Director Woman's Work, Commission on 

Inter-racial Co-operation Atlanta 

Mrs. Archibald Davis, Member Woman's Continuation 

Committee Atlanta 

Mrs. Z. I. Fitzpatrick, Member Woman's Continuation 

Committee Madison 

Mr. Marion Jackson, Attorney _ Atlanta 

Mr. Thomas Johnson, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Atlanta 

Dr. John Hope, President, Morehouse College Atlanta 

4 



KENTUCKY 

Dr. Jno. H. Little, Minister and Head Presbyterian Colored 

Missions Louisville 

Dr. Henry H. Sweets, Secretary, Committee on Christian Edu- 
cation and Ministerial Relief, Sou. Pres. Church Louisville 

Mr. P. C. Dix, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Louisville 

LOUISIANA 

Mr. Leo M. Favrot, Department of Education Baton Rouge 

Bishop R. E. Jones, Bishop Methodist Episcopal Church.. New Orleans 

MARYLAND 

Mrs. H. M. Wharton, General Chairman, Personal Service 
Dept., Woman's Missionary Union, Southern Baptist 
Convention Baltimore 

MISSISSIPPI 
The Rt. Reverend Theodore D. Bratton, Bishop of Mississippi, Jackson 
Mr. Blake W. Godfrey, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Jackson 

MISSOURI 
Mrs. W. C. Winsborough, President, Woman's Auxiliary, South- 
ern Presbyterian Church St. Louis 

NORTH CAROLINA 

Dr. Wm. L. Poteat, President, Wake Forest College Wake Forest 

Mrs. T. W. Bickett, Member Woman's Continuation Com Raleigh 

Mr. J. Wilson Smith, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Charlotte 

OKLAHOMA 
Mr. John R. Boardman, Manufacturer, Chairman, Oklahoma 

Committee on Inter-Racial Co-operation Oklahoma City 

Mr. F. M. Deerhake, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Oklahoma City 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Dr. Henry Nelson Snyder, President, Wofford College Spartanburg 

Mr. G. Croft Williams, Secretary, Board State Charities Columbia 

Dr. Josiah Morse, Professor, University of South Carolina....Columbia 
Mr. T. B. Lanham, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Columbia 

TENNESSEE 

Dr. Edwin Mims, Professor, Vanderbilt University Nashville 

Mr. Arch Trawick, Manufacturer Nashville 

Dr. W. D. Weatherford, President, Southern College of 

Y. M. C. A Nashville 

Dr. O. E. Goddard, Secretary, Home Mission Board, 

M. E. Church Nashville 

Mrs. W. D. Weatherford Nashville 

Dr. Isaac Fisher, Editor, Fisk University News Nashville 

5 



TEXAS 

Mr. L. A. Coulter, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Dallas 

Mr. R. L. Smith, Banker Waco 

VIRGINIA 

Dr. R. E. Blackwell, President, Randolph-Macon College Ashland 

Dr. J. H. Dillard, President, The John F. Slater Fund....Charlottesville 
Mr. Jackson Davis, General Field Agent, General 

Education Board Richmond 

Mr. Homer L. Ferguson, Manufacturer Newport News 

Dr. S. C. Mitchell, Richmond College Richmond 

Dr. J. G. Venable, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church Norfolk 

Dr. James E. Gregg, Principal, The Hampton Normal and 

Industrial Institute Hampton 

Mrs. B. B. Mumford, National Board, Y. W. C. A Richmond 

Mr. M. W. Lee, State Secretary, Y. M. C. A Richmond 

Dr. Jno. M. Gandy, President, Petersburg Normal and 

Industrial Institute Petersburg 

FIELD SECRETARIES 

ALABAMA— LOUISIANA— MISSISSIPPI 
H. L. Anderton, 607-11 Jefferson County Bank Bldg., Birmingham, Ala. 
W. W. Hadnott, 1131 Gravier Street New Orleans, La. 

ARKANSAS 

John L. Hunter, (Acting) 603 A. 0. U. W. Bldg Little Rock, Ark. 

R. C. Childress, 1122 Izard Street Little Rock, Ark. 

FLORIDA— GEORGIA 
T, J. Woofter, Jr., 416 Palmer Building Atlanta, Ga. 

KENTUCKY 
James Bond, 214 Pythian Building Louisville, Ky. 

NORTH CAROLINA— SOUTH CAROLINA— VIRGINIA 

R. W. Miles, 902 Chamber of Commerce Building Richmond, Va. 

J. T. Hodges, 1129 Washington Street Columbia, S. C. 

OKLAHOMA— TEXAS 

E. M. Castleberry, 238, 1% N. Harvey St Oklahoma City, Okla. 

H. T. S. Johnson, 208 Slaughter Bldg Oklahoma City, Okla. 

TENNESSEE 

James D. Burton Oakdale, Tenn. 

R. E. Clay Bristol, Tenn. 



PREFACE 

All of the members of the Commission on Inter-Racial Co- 
operation live in the South and have been throughout their 
lives intimately related to Southern institutions and South- 
ern communities. They are leaders in various phases of 
Southern life — legal, educational, industrial, agricultural, 
church and civic. The service of these men and women 
to the commission has been voluntary. They have been 
actuated solely by a desire to serve in relation to a na- 
tional problem recognizing that in the adjustment of race 
relations in America the South must bear the major re- 
sponsibility. 

The Commission believes that race hatred and force will 
only complicate race relations in America more seriously, 
and that the only alternative to these is to be found in the 
counsel and cooperation of men of character, intelligence 
and good will. To that end, the Commission has sought to 
bring together in every local community in the South the 
strongest white and colored men of this type. Wherever 
this habit of conference between the leaders of the races has 
been practised racial peace has been found easy to maintain, 
and many community improvements beneficial to both white 
and colored have been made. 

The Commission is convinced that the local community is 
the place in which permanent improvement in race relations 
must be made, and that the problem of race relations in its 
larger aspects is but the sum total of numerous local situa- 
tions, and that these can be satisfactorily adjusted only by 
conference and cooperation between the white and colored 
leaders within the local communities. 

The work to be undertaken by any local committee must 
be determined by the committee itself, and can only be ar- 
rived at after careful study of community conditions and 
conference between the leaders of the two races. Some 
things which are usually found to need attention are, the 
courts, particularly the petty courts, education, living and 
sanitary conditions in the Negro community and the rela- 
tionship between the white employer and colored laborer. 
None of these within themselves are race problems. They 



are national problems which affect all races, but which are 
often found in a more aggravated form in communities 
which are composed of two different races. 

The Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation will do what- 
ever it can to cooperate with the local inter-racial commit- 
tees. It has encouraged the formation in each of the South- 
ern states of a state inter- racial committee. In the majority 
of instances these committees have been formed with the 
approval and upon the advice of the Governor. They are 
composed of some of the wisest and most influential citizens 
of the state. These state committees were organized in or- 
der that the local committees might have the advice and co- 
operation of the leadership of the state in the solution of 
their special problems. However, it cannot be too strongly 
emphasized that the success of this effort to secure inter- 
racial good will and justice depends upon the sincere and in- 
telligent effort on the part of local inter-racial committee- 
men. 

This pamphlet is published to assist local inter-racial com- 
mittees in finding and working out their programs. Each 
part has been written with the hope of throwing some light 
upon conditions found in local communities. An effort has 
been made to outline these conditions and mention the agen- 
cies within the communities and those operating from state 
headquarters which should co-operate in the work. 

The activities are not new. The paper suggests methods 
by which persons and agencies already in the communities 
may be set to work for the welfare of the whole community, 
and not merely for the white community. 

KEEP THIS BOOKLET FOR REFERENCE. 
November, 1921. 



8 



INTRODUCTION 

INTER-RACIAL WORK AND THE COMMUNITY 

BY T. J. WOOFTER, Jr. 

Many of the eight hundred county Inter-racial Com- 
mitees have already begun to show their value in bettering 
Southern communities. Their activity has not sprung from 
any outside pressure. It has been planned in the frank, 
open counsel of local white and colored leaders — the home 
folks. Different committees have interested themselves in 
different lines of work because there are many community 
problems to claim their attention. Inter-racial problems 
cross-section the whole community life. The health edu- 
cation, efficiency, morality, happiness, and respect for the 
justice of the community, which colored people have, not 
only govern their own individual conduct, but to a large ex- 
tent, they also condition the activity of the whole commun- 
ity. Dealing with Negro problems is therefore dealing with 
a special side of all Southern problems, i. e., those of re- 
ligion, labor, law and order, education, health, housing, re- 
creation and care of the poor and delinquent. 

The special aspect of these problems as they relate to the 
Negro, consists mainly in the need for mutual respect and 
good will between the races and for working out the meth- 
ods of active co-operation. Under these circumstances there 
is little wonder that the activities of Inter-racial Commit- 
tees are varied. 

Within this wide field of usefulness it has been easy for 
the local white leaders interested in bettering their town or 
county to do so by co-operating with colored leaders in im- 
proving the condition of their people along some of these 
lines. This has given them the real pleasure which comes 
with active good citizenship. 

When the first jobs had been disposed of some committees 
felt that the work was finished and that thence forward 
their task consisted in holding themselves in readiness to 
check race friction or violence. 

Members of such committees are specially urged to note 
the great variety of possibilities for constructive work pre- 

9 



sented in this pamphlet. Not every one of these suggestions 
is applicable to every community, but it is fairly certain that 
work should be done in all communities along some of the 
lines presented in the following papers. Such constructive 
work is, in the last analysis, the best preventive for race 
friction, crime, and violence. 

To do some of this work requires the technical knowledge 
of a social worker. For this, the members of the committees 
must rely on the State Inter-racial Secretaries and upon 
state and local leaders who are specialists. But no amount 
of supervision from national, State or even county govern- 
mental agencies can accomplish things until the people of 
the local communities are ready to form the organizations 
and carry forward the programs. This is the function of 
the local committees. They have the means of creating the 
right sentiment and providing the local support. 

VALUE OF INTER-RACIAL WORK 

Aside from its special value to colored people, which is dis- 
cussed by Prof. Fisher in the following paper, inter-racial 
work offers one of the best chances in the South for the gen- 
uine performance of the duties of good citizenship. It adds 
to the chances of every individual in the community to be 
healthier in body and morals, more regular and efficient in 
production, better able to enjoy wholesome recreation and 
more capable of raising the new generation to still higher 
standards. The work of these co-operative committees is 
not work for colored people, but work with colored people 
for community betterment. It is not an effort to elevate 
the Negro, involving a special type of activity distinct from 
the general lines of service. It is merely an effort to build 
a definite co-operative organization, whose job will be to 
stimulate community institutions to work for all the people, 
and to deal justly with the Negro. 

HOW TO APPROACH THE WORK 

Since the committees are without authority they must 
rely for results upon the influence which they may be able 
to exert upon the various active organizations which are, or 
should be, concerned with race relations. These fall into 
three main classes: 

10 



I. Governmental, such as City or County boards admin- 
istering health, education, recreation, streets, sewers and 
lights. 

II. Private organizations, such as churches, associated 
charities, childcaring agencies. 

III. General civic agencies, such as the press and public 
service corporations. 

Committees will therefore be more effective if men influ- 
ential in shaping the policies of these agencies are included 
in the membership, or at least invited to be represented on 
the sub-committee which deals with the particular line of 
work in which they are interested. 

When the community leaders who should be active have 
been invited to meet, the next step is for some individual or 
small group to prepare a careful statement of local needs of 
the colored people, giving the facts in the case and recom- 
mendations. In case action on the matter involves some 
technical knowledge, such as is demanded in school work, 
care of child dependents, or distribution of recreation facil- 
ities, the facts should be gathered by some one especially 
trained and by actual visit to the school, orphanage, play- 
ground, etc. 

It is for this purpose that the State Secretaries are avail- 
able. Local committees would do well to request the State 
Secretary to devote a few days to the study of such matters 
for them. 

The joint committee should be sure that the colored 
man's point of view is presented. For this reason it often 
adds to the clearness and conciseness of the presentation if 
the colored members meet separately just before the joint 
meeting in order to divide up the task of presentation. It is 
also suggested that their reports be filed in writing. 

When the colored members have made their presentation, 
the motion for definite action would come with better grace 
from some white member of the committee. 

Some of the matters discussed may be disposed of by send- 
ing a petition or delegation to the proper board or official. 
Some will require a standing sub-committee to follow up and 
endeavor to get several agencies in the community to com- 
bine forces in dealing with the problem. Small committees 

11 



or delegated individuals who have power to act for the 
committee and who are expected to report to the committee 
must be depended upon for definite action. 

Whenever a definite line of action is determined it would 
be well to render to the State Inter-racial Secretary a copy 
of the motion or resolution authorizing the action. It is im- 
possible for the State Secretary to attend all local meetings, 
but with copies of resolutions and motions in hand he may 
often be of great service by telling the proper state official of 
the activity of the local committee and securing outside aid 
and advice for its project. He will also be able to en- 
courage lagging committees by telling them of the good 
work. 

MATTERS FOR THE STATE COMMITTEES 

This manual is prepared especially for county committees 
and the activities of the state committees are only indi- 
rectly discussed. It often kills interest in the local commit- 
tee when too much time is taken up in discussion of griev- 
ances which are real, but which involve factors too big for 
the county committee to handle. These should be referred 
to the state committees through the State Inter-racial Sec- 
retary. 

RELATION TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 

It cannot be too plainly emphasized, that the work of the 
inter-racial committee is done largely through other organ- 
izations and officials in the community. 

The general activities of these organizations are treated 
in this collection of papers. Experts who have had wide 
experience in the South have discussed their special lines of 
work. 

In requesting any definite action the members of the com- 
mittee should familiarize themselves with the general work 
of the organization or city department, county department 
or private association which might meet their need. They 
should ascertain before the meeting, if possible, the extent 
to which the organization works among white people, its 
willingness to undertake a program for colored people and, 
whether or not the colored people can be lined up in sup- 

12 



port of the program. Recommendations should be clearly 
worked out in advance of the meeting. Such a report would 
be the basis of an interesting and intelligent discussion in 
the general meeting. 

No discussion should be closed without some motion which 
should delegate some member of the committee or a sub- 
committee to be responsible for carrying out the general 
committee's wishes and reporting back at the next regular 
meeting. If these individuals or sub-committees are to try 
to secure action from some official or board they should 
carry with them a resolution of the inter-racial committee 
signed by its members. 

In thus approaching the organizations of the community 
and asking them to adjust their program so as to work for 
all the people more adequately it should be borne in mind 
that nothing is asked that will not make colored people bet- 
ter citizens of the community. 

THE VALUE OF INTER-RACIAL WORK TO COLORED 

PEOPLE 

BY ISAAC FISHER 
Editor Fisk University 

Fear has been voiced by some of the persons who are in- 
terested in the colored people that the movement for inter- 
racial understanding and co-operation between the white 
people and the colored people of the South, in particular, 
may prove to be harmful, because the good will created may, 
by giving the impression that all is well between the two 
races, halt the movement for the securing of certain specfic 
rights for the colored people, under and by law, and for the 
curing of evils against which they unanimously complain; 
and that the inter-racial movement is likely to result in an 
obscuring of issues, and the acceptance by the Negro and by 
the nation at large of remedies which are expedients only, 
not going to the heart of the matters at issue. 

MUTUAL SUSPICION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 

But the Negro has no monopoly of suspicion relative to 
the Inter-racial Movement. There are white people who are 
just as distrustful of it as are many colored people, fearing 

13 



that it may result in concessions to the Negro. The exist- 
ence of this mutual suspicion is in essence the mcst power- 
ful argument that can be made in favor of the Inter-racial 
Movement; for if the Negro is afraid to support it for fear 
that his own representatives have not enough integrity to 
ask for what the Negro wants, and are likely to concede 
too much to the viewpoint of the white people ; and if white 
people are afraid to support the movement for fear their 
own representatives are men lacking in proper firmness, 
then, in spite of the abundance of good will on both sides, 
we must own ourselves unable to take the first steps toward 
inter-racial peace. There may be some question touching 
the wisdom of both races entering and supporting the move- 
ment ; but there is absolutely no question relative to the dan- 
ger to the Negro, to the white people, and to the nation at 
large if the two races remain out of such a movement. 

WHAT THE INTER-RACIAL MOVEMENT REPRESENTS 

The Inter-Racial Movement represents the most enlight- 
ened conscience, and the mutual goodwill of the South. It 
sprang out of the desire, on the part of the most Christian 
white people here, since the Great War, to meet the demands 
of social justice. It has been made possible by a small group 
of colored people who are not too much embittered by the 
past to give the white people whom we believe to be sincere 
this latest chance to prove that they desire fair play for the 
Negro; and these colored people are willing to co-operate 
with their white neighbors in attempts to find the bases of 
lasting racial peace. The white people who compose the 
white membership are sober and thoughtful. They realize 
that however sensitive its white spokesmen may be to any 
suggestion that it has not done justly by the Negro — how- 
ever loyal they may be in springing to its defense in justifi- 
cation of its race philosophy relative to the Negro, the South 
is on trial before the world — on trial to test whether the 
Christianity of the dominant race group here is strong 
enough to dictate "the unhampered development" of a 
weaker race group within its midst, and to safeguard to that 
race a fair day of fullest opportunity. 

All of the colored people do not have confidence in the 
movement ; nor do all the white people subscribe to its aims. 

14 



But it is the most philosophic step that has been taken here 
to promote justice and goodwill, unless we grant that all of 
the white people here are unmoved by the teachings of Jesus, 
and, therefore, are incapable of justice. If we grant this, 
then there is no remedy that can be put immediately into 
practice. But whatever the past, there have always lived 
here the "fifty righteous" whose lives prevent the accept- 
ance of such a premise. These are and have been the hope 
of the South — these who are seeking "to walk humbly with 
God" by striving "to do justly" and "to love mercy." If 
they fail, the South will fail. If other races or nations have 
stubbornly refused to accept the principle that justice is of 
greater binding force than racial and national experiences, 
the answer is that every such nation of yesterday contain- 
ing such races, lies in the dust today. 

FORUMS TO GIVE THE NEGRO "HIS DAY IN COURT" 

Although it is often vigorously denied that the Negro has 
any just grounds of complaint against the South, when we 
discuss his feelings and attitude toward the white people 
here, we are compelled to consider, not what white people 
say he should feel, and what he should complain about, but 
what he actually feels and resents. 

The general grounds of the Negro's complaints in the 
South are as follows: 

(1.) That no Negro's life is safe from the mob, and that 
in a major number of cases (as statistics prove), under 
cover of charges which influence the public mind against the 
colored people, Negroes are lynched for almost any offense ; 
and innocent Negroes are put to death for no crime at all, 
simply on suspicion. 

It is in connection with this complaint that the colored 
members of the inter-racial group can render valuable serv- 
ice to the communities in v/hich they live. Wherever there is 
reason to suspect that a mob is likely to form or is forming, 
the colored members of the inter-racial committee near or in 
the neighborhood of the disturbance, should communicate 
immediately with the white members of the group and bring 
the matter to their attention. It will generally be found 
that enough wisdom will present itself in the conference to 
suggest the proper course to be followed in preventing mob 

15 



violence or to be able to fix the blame for failure to see that 
the peaceful methods of the law are employed. 

(2.) That frequently equal protection of the laws are de- 
nied to the Negro, particularly where he and white persons 
are in controversy with each other. 

Here again the colored members have a splendid field for 
service. If the denial of the equal protection of the laws 
takes the form of threatening the personal safety of any 
colored person, the procedure would be the same as in the 
case of threatened mob violence. But if the case is one in 
which the courts have passed on a controversy between a 
Negro and a white person, and there seems to be valid 
ground for the belief that there has been a miscarriage of 
justice, such belief with the grounds supporting it, should 
be laid before the white members of the inter-racial group 
for such affirmative action as the latter may judge it wise 
to take. In the case of poor and friendless Negroes whose 
poverty and friendless condition will not permit them to 
take advantage of the remedies provided by the law, a joint 
action by the inter-racial group to provide legal aid for 
such unfortunates will be productive of good, and is certain 
to meet with the approval of those upright members of the 
bench and bar who would not knowingly deny justice to 
the most unfortunate and friendless. 

(3.) That frequently laws are made without due refer- 
ence to the Negro's welfare. 

Experience has shown that if white people of good stand- 
ing in a community interest themselves in matters which 
concern the colored people, good results are usually obtained. 
In a given case where a law-making body is about to enact 
a law deemed harmful to the colored people, such law and 
the objection to it should be brought to the attention of the 
inter-racial group. It will generally be found that where a 
delegation of colored people accompanied by white people of 
the type usually found on the white inter-racial groups ap- 
pear before committees of law-making bodies, careful hear- 
ings are usually given them. The sympathetic counsels of 
the white members will be found to be invaluable in helping 
the colored people avoid the steps which might prejudice 
their case. 

16 



(4.) That frequently the laws are enforced without due 
reference to the Negro's welfare or his racial pride. 

In the matter of law enforcement, the colored members 
should be diligent in the collection of facts to support any 
charges that the laws are enforced without reference to 
the welfare or pride of the colored people. These facts 
should be openly and fairly discussed in the whole inter- 
racial group. It should be kept constantly in mind that, as 
a rule, the white members of the group represent the Chris- 
tian forces of a given community ; and they have the ear of 
that part of the community which is quick to resent any 
wrongs done to anybody. It is valuable service done to this 
part of a community, as well as to the Negro, to see that 
anything not equitable in the treatment of the colored peo- 
ple is brought to their attention. The inter-racial commit- 
tee is the efficient medium for this work. 

(5.) That the customs of the South relative to the Negro, 
including various forms of segregation, and the mode and 
spirit in which the laws are enforced and the customs up- 
held, are unnecessarily and needlessly humiliating to the 
colored people. 

Without passing at all on the probability of changing the 
customs complained of, one thing is certain, there is no 
group before which the complaints can more appropriately 
be laid than the Christian members of a given community; 
and it is equally certain that persons will be heard on these 
delicate questions with the same amount of patience and 
goodwill as will be true of the colored members of the in- 
ter-racial group. 

(6.) That, and this is fundamental, generally deprived of 
the ballot, colored people are absolutely helpless to protect 
themselves. 

Whatever may be said for or against the exercise of the 
ballot by the colored people, one thing is certain here, also: 
There can be no better way of threshing out the whole mat- 
ter in calmness and goodwill than will be afforded by the 
frank interchange of views that is had in the inter-racial 
meetings. The extreme value of these meetings is seen 
very clearly in the fact that while the inter-racial com- 
mittee has not set for itself the task of settling all race 
problems, no subject is deemed one which thoughtful col- 

17 



ored people and white people may not discuss with each 
other, however strongly each may feel on the matter at 
issue. 

(7.) That the most discouraging phase of race relations 
in the South is that on all matters mentioned here and 
others, the Negro has had no redress, no white people who 
seemed to understand the feelings of the colored people, or 
who were willing even to hear him state his case. 

Without arguing that it is or is not true that there have 
been no white people to whom the colored people could turn 
for redress of grievances, it is certain that no such charge 
can be laid in any community where an active, forward- 
looking inter-racial committee exists. The fact that no 
question touching the relations between the races is barred 
from discussion; and the fact that — and this if of great 
importance — the white members of the group are, invaria- 
bly, persons of fine Christian sentiments, take away in part 
the reproach above. Whatever the grievance, whatever 
the practice, whatever the friction point, the colored mem- 
bers of the inter-racial committees can render fine service 
to their communities by bringing them up for discussion 
in the inter-racial meetings, curing many of long stand- 
ing, and preventing others from becoming acute. 

No branch of the Inter-Racial Movement has promised 
that it can or will relieve us of all disabilities; but conse- 
crated white men within the movement have dedicated 
themselves to the task of helping to cure and curb these in- 
justices to the Negro where they can be shown to exist, 
and of giving to the Negro that which he has never had 
before, i. e. forums where colored people may in security 
voice their complaints to white men against inequitable 
deeds done by white men, with the knowledge that justice 
and not race is to be the determining factor. This is a step 
toward taking away the sting of the awful seventh com- 
plaint above. Negroes have always had their day in court 
when they had complaints against Negroes; but they have 
not felt that they always were heard with sympathetic ears 
when they had grievances against white people. 

It is because of all this that the Inter-Racial Movement is 
so valuable to the colored people here. By organizing inter- 
racial committees all over the South, as it has now done, 

18 



it has already provided points of contact between the bet- 
ter classes of the two races in many places; it has already 
set sentinels of both races to watch for signs of disorder 
and causes of friction ; it has already taken the lead, again 
and again, as our records show, in preventing violence in 
certain places; it has repeatedly called the attention of offi- 
cials to unfair attitudes toward Negroes in several places, 
and with successful results; without publicity, it is cour- 
ageously serving notice on souls here and there, who do not 
have the vision of goodwill and fair play, that the voices 
of Christian white people will not be silent any longer where 
inequitable practices obtain. It has not revolutionized racial 
conditions here, but it has established the basis of race ad- 
justment by providing for the co-operation and goodwill 
which spring out of perfect understanding. There is quite 
a long distance to go yet; but we are certainly headed in 
the right direction. 

A REALM OF GOOD WILL AND JUSTICE OR— FINIS 

The value of this step is not to be measured. The South 
administers her own laws; and, as a matter of constitu- 
tional law, within the undisputed scope of State police 
powers, as construed by the Supreme Court of the United 
States, each Southern State has the power, even after it 
has conformed strictly to the letter of federal laws, to make 
life for the Negro here unbearable, the only escape from 
which can be the merciful and Christian sentiments of our 
Southern white people. Every patriotic citizen must now 
take the stand that it is the duty of the National Govern- 
ment by affirmative legislation to seek always to follow its 
Constitution and strive to "establish justice" so that the 
nation itself may not perish; and the colored members of 
the Inter-Racial Movement are in perfect sympathy with 
any laws, State or Federal, or both, whose intent and effects 
are to accomplish this result. 

But there is a realm which no laws can reach, i. e., the 
realm of neighborly good will and interest. It is in this 
sphere that the Inter-Racial Movement would work, seek- 
ing to create so universal a feeling of brotherhood that 
causes of bitterness and ill-will are eliminated. Many col- 
ored people deny the possibility of creating such a realm in 

19 



the South; and there are many white people here who be- 
lieve that it will not be to the interest of the white race it- 
self to create any such sphere of good will. The colored 
members of the movement believe that it can be set up here 
without danger to any essential interest ; and they are sup- 
ported by the teachings of the Master. 

It is only in such a sphere of good will that constructive 
work can be done. White friends say to colored members 
of Inter-Racial Committees, for example, "We will co- 
operate with you in getting protection, justice in the courts, 
better schools, better health, better care for the unfortu- 
nates." Colored members cannot afford to reject these of- 
fers. Now that the committees have made such a good be- 
ginning in cultivating the realm of good will, they approach 
the task of doing good work. The kind of good work and 
methods of doing it are described in this pamphlet. It be- 
hooves all people in the South to work along these lines. 
The real spirit of co-operation can come only with co-opera- 
tive activity. When people work together they actually 
see that they think and act alike, and this demonstration is 
far more valuable and lasting than protestations of friend- 
ship. The opportunity to work together on these construc- 
tive projects not only presents possibilities of great good to 
Southern communities, but also furnishes the real basis 
upon which friendship between the races can be founded. 



20 



SECTION I. 
EDUCATION 

EDITOR'S NOTE :— The greatest feature of the work in 
hand is education. Prejudice fades before knowledge. In 
its broadest aspect education includes not only the better- 
ment of schools, as treated by Dr. James H. Dillard, but also 
an increase in sympathetic understanding, as treated by 
Chancellor D. C. Barrow, and the wider spread of facts 
through the press by Mr. James Nevin. Permanent results 
will be dependent on the building of a body of favorable 
public opinion. 

IMPROVING RURAL SCHOOLS 

JAMES HARDY DILLARD 
President Jeanes and Slater Funds 

So far as I have been able to form an opinion I should 
say that there has been within ten years, and even more 
within five years, a decided advance in the readiness and 
desire of school boards and superintendents to give the col- 
ored children a square deal in education. There has been 
an advance both in length of term in colored schools and in 
the salary paid to colored teachers. There has been an 
advance in the interest taken by superintendents in the 
better housing and better supervision of the colored schools. 

As illustrations in proof of the progressive attitude let 
me cite three facts. First: Public school officials are ap- 
propriating this year $425,000 in co-operation with the 
Rosenwald donations toward building rural school houses 
for colored children. Second: Up to seven years ago the 
Jeanes Fund paid practically all the salary for the rural su- 
pervising teachers that were employed in various counties, 
little or no appropriations coming for this purpose from 
public funds. This year the public school officials are pay- 
ing for these workers $120,000. Third: Eight years ago, 

21 



through the co-operation of the Slater Fund, four graded 
county training schools were established, to each of which 
the public school officials appropriated $750, or $3,000 in all. 
This year the public school officials are appropriating over 
$650,000 to 141 of such schools. 

In order, however, that the public school authorities may 
be supported in providing better accommodations, better 
terms, and better teachers for their colored schools, they 
must have public sentiment back of them. It is in this that 
we may see how great good may be done by the local com- 
mittees of the Inter-Racial Commission. The mere saying 
of a word in season may count for much. And where the 
facilities are notably bad, why might not the local commit- 
tee in a tactful way lay the matter before the school board 
and suggest improvement? I happen to know that the 
local committees have already in certain places been serv- 
iceable in inducing their communities to fulfill the condi- 
tions necessary for co-operation with the agencies men- 
tioned above, that is, the Rosenwald Fund, which gives lib- 
erally for building rural school houses, the Jeanes Fund 
which pays half or two-thirds of the salary for a rural Su- 
pervising Teacher in the county, and the Slater Fund which 
gives $500 annually for establishing a good central school 
in the county, known as a County Training School. It may 
be said that the Slater Board also has a fund for aiding 
town schools on certain conditions. The conditions in all 
these cases and in other agencies of co-operation, are simple 
and reasonable and any information on the subject will be 
gladly given by the State Agent for Negro Schools con- 
nected in each state with the Department of Public Edu- 
cation. In many instances it will be found that the local 
superintendents already have the necessary information. 

But the question of outside help is incidental. The great 
need is that the local superintendents and school boards 
may feel that they have the support of the good people of 
the community in improving the school facilities for the col- 
ored children. It seems too late in the day to argue the 
question that it is better economically, better morally, for 
all the people that all should have education and training. 
The facts are all one way. It has never been shown that 
ignorance is an asset to any sort of progress or a cure for 

22 



any sort of ill. It is not only fair, but profitable all around, 
that the colored masses should have better schools. 



CITY SCHOOLS 

T. J. WOOFTER, Jr. 

The activities described by Dr. Dillard in the preceding 
paper apply almost altogether to rural schools. The im- 
provement of city schools demands a number of special activ- 
ities which should be engaged in co-operation with the City 
School Board. 

1. Scrutinize bond issues and see that provisions for 
buildings are equitably made. 

2. Study the system of repair and upkeep of buildings. 

3. See if grounds have adequate space and play appar- 
atus. 

4. See if there is a parent-teachers' association; and if 
not, endeavor to co-operate the principal in organizing 
one. These associations are especially helpful in stimulating 
community interest in the schools. 

5. Whenever new buildings are planned have an audi- 
torium or community meeting place provided. The com- 
mittee might well equip this room with a steropticon or 
moving picture machine. 

6. Have one room equipped with bookcases and books 
so that it may serve both as a school and a community 
library. 

7. No community center is complete without music. 
Provide such musical instruments as can be obtained, and 
see if a suitable leader for a community orchestra can be 
found. 

8. There should be a standard four-year high school in 
each town. The State Supervisor of Schools will rate the 
work now done and advise as to the steps necessary to make 
it standard. 

23 



MORE KNOWLEDGE AND SYMPATHY NEEDED 

D. C. BARROW 
Chancellor, University of Georgia 

It is not strange that a want of knowledge should exist 
on the part of white people as to the Negroes. 

With abolition of slavery the Negro was turned loose in 
a large measure to find his own way. The effort was neces- 
sarily a groping search. Sympathetic understanding be- 
tween the two races was in a large measure destroyed by 
the experiences of reconstruction. It is not worth while, 
however, to thresh over this straw except in so far as to 
state these things as causes of the misunderstanding. 

The Negro, in making his independent effort to adjust 
himself to his new condition, did not always go as wisely 
as he would have gone if sympathy had been enlisted in his 
behalf. He did go, however, and he did grow. 

The changes which came about were more or less care- 
fully hid from his white associates. He thought this nec- 
essary. 

One effect of this was to have the Negro undergoing a 
change of which his white neighbors were not aware. He, 
On the contrary had the white man as an open book. 

The new tenant who takes one of my farms makes it his 
first business to find out all about me. He asks the older 
tenants and they give him their opinions. He tries by all 
means in his reach to find out the kind of man he is dealing 
with. 

The landlord in a way tries to do the same, but since it 
is not his chief business he does not succeed so well as the 
tenant. This places the landlord in the attitude of dealing 
with a tenant whose character is not so well known. 

Often the result is a misunderstanding. 

In the city, there seems to be the same kind of intelli- 
gence service among the Negroes, with quite similar results. 

The first step should be a better acquaintance. It is well 
worth while. 

There should be more active sympathy. We had a young 
Negro working for us a few days ago on the campus. 

I heard incidentally — as an excuse for tardiness — that 

24 



his wife had been sick. The next morning I inquired after 
his wife's health and he said she was better. 

That afternoon, as I was standing where he was working, 
he asked me if I did not need a boy on my lot. 

Those who come in contact with the Negro will find that 
it is very valuable not only to have knowledge of the race 
in general but also to know the individuals with whom they 
are dealing and to deal with them on a basis of individual 
merit rather than racial characteristics. 

To present this situation in a more general way, it is bad 
for any community that there should be two distinct classes 
of people who are uninformed of the thoughts and purposes 
of each other. When the separation is marked by differ- 
ence of race the situation becomes more difficult. 

It would seem to be the plain duty of the more advanced 
race to inform itself and lend a hand. 

As it appears to me, it is not only a matter of personal 
advantage but also of public duty for the white citizen to 
inform himself of the life and thought of his Negro neigh- 
bor. 

This information should be gained through friendly con- 
tact and careful study. 

SUGGESTIONS 

1. That lecturers who can treat this subject be secured 
as often as possible. 

2. That colleges and high schools be especially urged 
to create an intelligent sentiment on race relations. 

3. That study groups and reading circles devote part of 
their programs to this subject. For the use of such groups 
Negro Life in the South, by W. D. Weatherford, Nashville, 
Tennessee, is a good simple beginner's book. Other leaf- 
lets are available from the Commission on Inter-Racial 
Co-operation. 

EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 

1. The County and City Superintendents of Schools. 

These men should be persuaded to serve as members of 
the Inter-Racial Committee wherever this is possible and if 
they are not members they should be called in when school 

25 



matters are to be discussed. Often they will have full in- 
formation regarding other agencies which may be called on 
to aid in improving schools. 

2. State Supervisors of Colored Schools. (Address State 
Department of Education). 

These are Southern white men of outstanding ability as 
school men and can be very helpful in studying the local 
school situation for the superintendent and for the commit- 
tee and in making recommendations, also bringing in aid 
from outside agencies. 

3. Rosenwald Rural School Building Fund. (S. L. Smith, 
Agent, Nashville, Tenn.) 

Inaugurated to meet the need for more and better build- 
ings and to help provide better schools for rural colored 
children. Whenever any buildings are projected in a 
county it would be well to ascertain whether or not aid from 
this fund could be secured. This aid is usually disbursed 
through the State Supervisors of colored schlools. The 
headquarters of the Rosenwald fund keeps on hand plans 
for up-to-date school houses and can render valuable service 
along these lines. 

4. Anna T. Jeanes Foundation. (James H. Dillard, 
President, Charlottesville, Va.) 

Maintains colored supervising teachers who work under 
county superintendents. The business of these traveling 
teachers is to introduce in small country schools simple 
home industries, with lessons in sanitation, personal clean- 
liness, etc., inaugurating improvements in school houses 
and school grounds and organizing clubs for betterment of 
school and neighborhood. Every county should have one 
of these supervisors. Details of the arrangement may be 
had from the State Supervisors of Colored Schools. 

5. John F. Slater Fund. (James H. Dillard, President, 
Charlottesville, Va.) 

Makes appropriations towards payment of salaries of in- 
dustrial trades teachers and towards the maintenance of 
County Training Schools. If there is no county training 
school in a county this fund should be consulted. If there 
is a private school whose industrial department is worthy 
of aid the Slater fund might also be requested to co-operate 
with the inter-racial committee. 

26 



AGENCIES OF GENERAL RESEARCH ADVICE AND 

INFORMATION 

Carnegie Foundation, 276 5th Ave., New York City. 
General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York City. 
Phelps-Stokes Fund, 297 4th Ave. at 23rd St., New York 
City. 

THE PRESS 

BY JAMES NEVIN 
Editor Atlanta Georgian 

To effect public opinion through the secular and religious 
press is fully as important a part of education on race rela- 
tions as the work which is done in schools. Here also the 
county inter-racial committees can render a valuable serv- 
ice. 

In approaching this work it is well to remember that there 
are two distinct phases of activity for inter-racial commit- 
tees. 

The first consists in spreading the doctrine of consulta- 
tion and cooperation between the white and colored lead- 
ers, rather than controversy and independent action in com- 
munity affairs. Statements praising this principle of deal- 
ing with race relations and condemning acts which violate 
this principle are matters for the editorial columns of the 
newspapers. For this reason the committeemen should see 
to it that the local editors understand thoroughly what the 
objects of the committee are and see that they are willing 
to work for the principle of cooperation through their edi- 
torial columns. 

The second task of local committees is that of putting into 
practice these doctrines of cooperation by working to ac- 
complish things which are beneficial to the community. 
That is to say, to accomplish some of the things which are 
suggested in this manual, such as improving schools, 
churches, administration of laws, health institutions, recre- 
ation and systems of caring for unfortunate members of 
the community. It is emphasized throughout this pamphlet 
that progress along these lines means progress for the whole 

27 



community rather than merely for the Negro citizens. Edi- 
tors should be told this, and they should help through their 
columns to make the citizens of the community see that this 
is true. Progress in this respect can be no more rapid than 
the development of an enlightened public opinion on the 
subject. 

Whenever the committee has made any progress in bet- 
tering some of the community institutions, that is news, 
and the editors should be glad to treat it as such in the news 
columns of their papers. It would be well, however, to 
have some member of the committee delegated to keep in 
touch with the newspapers and to give them brief accounts 
of each meeting in which some constructive work is done. 
This should include the names of members present, the time 
and place of meeting, the details of the plan which was 
adopted and a few words as to the importance of this plan 
in the life of the town and county. 

In addition to trying to see that newspapers include edi- 
torials and news items which will be helpful in race rela- 
tions, committees should interest themselves in persuading 
editors to adopt a policy of handling Negro news which will 
not agitate the sensational features of race relations. One 
defect which is easily remedied and which is not realized 
by many editors until it is called to their attention, is the 
damage done by flaring headlines. General Wood, in taking 
charge of the situation in Omaha, indicated that it was his 
belief that the sensational policy of one newspaper had been 
very influential in making the Omaha riot possible. The 
same accusation was lodged against another newspaper as 
a factor in the East St. Louis riot. It is certain that if the 
news concerning Negro crime is constantly paraded before 
the public and emphasized by flaring headlines containing 
the word, "Negro" a very unhealthy state of mind is brought 
about. Almost every editor who has been approached on 
this subject by inter-racial committees has gladly set about 
correcting this condition on his paper. It is a matter, how- 
ever, which has to be constantly watched, because the change 
in headline writers will often cause a reappearance of the 
undesirable symptom. 

The colored members of committees should be especially 
interested in bringing about a more co-operative frame of 

28 



mind in many of the colored newspapers. A recent book 
entitled, "The Voice of the Negro" by Dr. R. T. Kerlin, indi- 
cates that many of the newspapers are in the hands of a 
non-cooperative group of men, impractical in that they do 
not realize or at least do not make allowance for the diffi- 
culties which confront any group, white or colored, when 
they attempt to accomplish something constructive. In 
many instances this constant controversy and unbridled 
vituperation make enemies of those who should be friends, 
and thereby postpone rather than expedite accomplishment 
of a desired result. 

This does not mean that the colored members of the com- 
mittee should endeavor in any way to muzzle their press, or 
to persuade colored editors to take stands in which they 
do not thoroughly believe, but it does mean that they should 
endeavor to persuade them to show more wisdom as to 
when and where to take these stands and more accuracy and 
temperance in their method of expressing themselves, for 
no case in court was ever won by quarrelling with the jury. 

These three things, namely, the formation of a construc- 
tive news and editorial policy in the white press, and the 
abandonment of a sensational policy in news and headlines, 
both in the white and Negro press are important enough to 
warrant the inclusion of editors as members of the local in- 
ter-racial committees wherever they can be prevailed upon 
to serve. In many places they are important enough to de- 
mand that a sub-committee, or at least one committee mem- 
ber be delegated the responsibility of keeping in touch with 
the press and endeavoring to see that this powerful weapon 
for changing public opinion is used wisely and well. 



29 



SECTION II. 

CO-OPERATION BETWEEN WHITE AND COLORED 

CHURCHES 

BISHOP R. E. JONES 

If the churches cannot function in the inter-racial pro- 
gram we cannot hope for the movement to succeed. Every- 
thing in the church life is conducive to inter-racial co-oper- 
ation. Within the church there should be a minimum of 
suspicion and mistrust and a maximum of good will and 
mutual helpfulness, and if white and black alike regard 
Jesus Christ as the active leader of the church, and His 
teachings the basis of our Christian life, then we shall have 
little or no difficulty in inter-racial co-operation, for in 
Christ is neither Greek nor Jew nor Gentile nor bond nor 
free. There are recognized at once the great difficulties that 
face us in inter-racial co-operation even with so logical and 
so sympathetical an approach as that of the Christian 
church. The church is a divine institution but its agencies 
on earth are human and it is only fair to admit that with 
humanity as it is, that we must not expect the Church to do 
everything at once. There are a great many things it can 
do and unless it does these things, it is recreant of its trust 
and disloyal to the great head of the church. 

Wherein may the white and colored churches co-operate? 

First — White and colored preachers in every community 
in the South should meet at least once a month for the dis- 
cussion of community, educational and religious activities. 
Some will think this is imposible but it is quite practical and 
has been in vogue in a number of communities; notably in 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the chairman of the preach- 
ers' meeting, composed of both races, is a white man and the 
secretary a colored man. These preachers meet without 
the slighest embarrassment to themselves, to their mem- 

30 



bers or to the community. On the other hand, their meet- 
ing together in this way promotes confidence, trust and 
good will. 

Second — Each local inter-racial committee ought to have 
a sub-committee on inter-racial co-operation between the 
churches. The members of this committee ought to be out- 
standing men of both races not less than three and per- 
haps not more than five, but they should be the best men ; 
wise, discreet, tactful, but courageous. 

Third — For the present, white ministers should fill the 
pulpits of Negro chuches as often as possible and they 
should preach a pure gospel without seeking to give the 
Negroes patronizing advice. Nothing is more objectionable 
to Negroes than to have some white preacher fill a pulpit and 
build his entire sermon on the "black mammy" romance. 
However sympathetic this may be it always puts the Negro 
audience in bad humor. This is not the intention of the 
white preacher but the fact remains as stated. It is not 
practical, except in very rare cases, for an exchange of pul- 
pits between white and negro preachers in the South, al- 
though Negro ministers have been known to fill white pul- 
pits in the South with great acceptability. If it is possible, 
this should be done and where the message is of a high 
order, and in the right spirit, it will go a long way toward 
the promotion of inter-racial co-operation. But for the 
present, this pulpit exchange will be one-sided. But as a 
compensation : 

Fourth — Negro choirs and quartettes and soloists could 
be asked to sing in the white chuches of the South. This 
may seem a little radical at first but when it is thought 
over, it would not be at all strange. Where this has been 
tried it has proved very popular. The Fisk University quar- 
tette sang in the first Presbyterian Church in New Orleans 
and in the Jewish Synagogue, and instead of striking a dis- 
cordant note, it was a great hit. It never fails to work, 
especially when the Negro folklore songs are sung with the 
beauty and pathos characteristic of Negro choirs and quar- 
tettes : 

Fifth — Community Sunday Schools should be developed 
in the needy sections of the city and in the rural sections 

31 



for that matter, and consecrated white men and women in- 
vited to teach in these Sunday Schools. Here is a need that 
we have neglected and it has all the prestige that one wants 
when it is known that Stonewall Jackson taught a Negro 
Sunday School. 

Sixth — In Lake Charles recently, I learned of an out- 
standing Southern woman in that community, the wife of 
a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who 
was the leader of a Negro Woman's Community Club, devel- 
oping play-ground and other social activities. Here is an- 
other field for inter-racial co-operation between the churches. 



32 



\ 



SECTION III. 



ECONOMIC JUSTICE 

DR. ROBERT R. MOTON 
Principal Tuskegee Institute 

It is not too much to say that if the Negro could in every 
case receive economic justice, a large part of what we call 
the race problem, would be solved. In many cases, he would 
be in a position to solve his own problems. In other cases, 
it is certain that he would receive greater consideration at 
the hands of many who at present hold him in slight es- 
teem. This plea for economic justice is made by many 
other groups in America, so that the Negro is not the only 
one to be heard in this matter. 

Economic justice for Negroes in the South has, to a very 
large degree to do with the matter of farming. Fully 80 
per cent, of the Negro population of the South will be found 
in the rural districts engaged in the different phases of agri- 
culture. Whatever measures therefore, may be taken to 
place the Negro farmer in a fair way to getting the proper 
returns from the soil, will be a real contribution toward the 
welfare and progress of the race. To this end, there are 
certain measures which might be adopted on a wide scale 
that would make for the general improvement of conditions. 

RURAL PROBLEMS 

Demonstration Agents: The first of these lies in the 
activities of Farm Demonstration Agents, and Home Dem- 
onstration Agents. The extension service of the United 
States Department of Agriculture now employs more than 
1700 men and women who give themselves wholly to in- 
structing farmers and their wives throughout the South in 
the best methods of farm and household management, with 
a view to increasing crop production, the raising of live 
stock, the diversification of crops, the general improvement 

33 



of farm methods and the introduction of economy, comfort 
and convenience in household conditions. One or more 
such agents are to be found in nearly every county in the 
South. Of the total number of these agents, 240 are Ne- 
groes, whose activities are almost wholly confined to work 
among Negro farmers. When one takes into account the 
fact that there are about one thousand counties in the South 
and that there are in round numbers about 900,000 Negro 
farmers in this section, it becomes apparent that there 
must be thousands of these farmers who are still conducting 
their operations by methods that not only do not yield an 
adequate return, but that are in hundreds of cases, posi- 
tively discouraging. It is natural that white demonstration 
agents will be found giving their time for the most part to 
white farmers, though in many cases, they do not confine 
their activities to this group. What is needed most, there- 
fore, is that there should be found at least one Negro Farm 
Demonstration Agent and one Home Demonstration Agent 
in each county in the South where there is any considerable 
number of Negro farmers. At the present time, only a few 
counties have such an agent, and in some sections, there is 
not one. South Carolina, with 109,000 Negro farmers, has 
only 7 Negro agents. The largest number is to be found in 
Alabama, which has 37 Negro demonstration agents work- 
ing among 95,203 Negro farmers. 

Inter-racial Committees, as a first measure of economic 
justice in counties with a large colored population, can do 
great good by encouraging the effort to secure a Negro Farm 
Demonstration Agent and a Home Demonstration Agent 
who shall give their time and attention to assisting Negro 
farmers and their wives toward improving their methods 
in agriculture. The results of such a measure will not only 
be an economic advantage to Negro farmers themselves but 
will prove equally advantageous to white planters and land- 
lords. 

Tenancy: Negro farmers in many places in the South 
can be helped considerably by securing for them just and 
equitable treatment in the conditions of farm tendency. 
Negro tenant farmers suffer most from the disadvantages 
of lax methods of accounting and irregular terms of settle- 
ment with their landlords. Many of these farmers are ig- 

34 



norant and unable to keep their own accounts; while their 
landlords do not always take the time and trouble to keep 
systematic accounts themselves. The result is that the dis- 
advantage of doubt in such cases inevitably falls on the 
Negro farmer. It is this fact which has in some instances 
given rise to very serious dissatisfaction and sometimes 
open collision between Negroes and whites in certain sec- 
tions of the South. It will be only fair to these farmers if 
landlords could in every instance be convinced of the equity 
as well as economic advantage, to themselves of keeping 
fair and accurate accounts with their Negro tenants and of 
making a regular and just settlement at the close of the 
harvesting season. A simple but very effective way to 
avoid all controversy would be to have the landlord provide 
each tenant with an inexpensive account book in which the 
landlord would himself record each item of goods or sum of 
money advanced. This book the tenant would keep in his 
own possession and the settlement at the end of the season 
would be made on the basis of this record. Such a system 
would give encouragement to many Negro farmers, offer- 
ing a prospect of advancement for themselves and a sure 
encouragement toward greater industry and permanent res- 
idence on the land. Much of the habit of moving and change 
among Negro tenants is due to their inability to make the 
desired progress under conditions such as described above. 

Housing: Housing conditions for Negro tenants on many 
farms are often deplorably bad. Many planters still pro- 
vide their tenants with nothing better than a one-room log 
cabin, or box house, which is conducive neither to comfort, 
vital energy nor morality. At this late date, one need 
hardly expect to be able to secure and hold reliable, pro- 
gressive, honest and self-respecting tenants who must live 
under such primitive conditions as are to be found in these 
one-room cabins. In this matter also, the provision of bet- 
ter accommodations makes for permanency of residence, 
and a larger measure of contentment among tenant farm- 
ers. At a time when it is necessary to secure increased 
production and to introduce improved methods in farming, 
such measures as these are necessary to secure the type of 
labor that will respond to progressive ideas. 

35 



Gardens: Along with the house, the planter or land- 
lord will do well to provide each tenant with a plot of ground 
for garden purposes. It is a short-sighted policy that is 
based on the idea that the planter gains when he makes it 
necessary for his tenants to come to him for all of their 
food supplies. Most, if not all of what the tenant will raise, 
will constitute a supplement to the staple article which he 
buys at the store, rather than take their place ; and even in 
those cases where the tenant is able to maintain himself 
with eggs, poultry, meat and vegetables of his own raising 
the net result from the improved food supply will be a more 
energetic and contented worker; better in body, in mind 
and in spirit, and probably in morals also. His whole out- 
look on life will be greatly improved by the improved con- 
ditions thus wrought in his diet and in his home life. It 
would be a distinct economic gain to encourage and assist 
every tenant to have a garden, both in winter and in sum- 
mer, some pigs, some chickens and a good cow. 

Land Ownership: For some years now through confer- 
ences, agricultural agents and otherwise. Negro farmers 
have been encouraged to become land owners. They have 
had pointed out to them the advantages of owning the land 
which they till; and in these years, land ownership among 
Negro farmers has increased in a way most gratifying to all 
who have had the best interests of the race at heart. In 
some places, however, it is counted undesirable to permit 
Negro farmers to become land owners. In some places in 
the South, it is still impossible for Negroes to buy land 
from white landholders, at any price. The effect of this 
policy in large measure is just the reverse of what is com- 
monly supposed to be the result. Without the responsi- 
bility that attaches to land ownership, the Negro farmer, 
like many other farmers, tends to become restless, indif- 
ferent, unreliable and unaspiring. There is a pride in own- 
ership that is stimulating, besides which the owner acquires 
a deeper sense of responsibility to those that are round 
about him. Those farmers who are most ready to move, 
who have the least interest in the methods of farming that 
make for permanent improvement of the soil, who are least 
interested in the general improvement of the conditions 
under which they live, are those farmers who own no land 

36 



and have no interest in its development, beyond that which 
attaches to each season's crop. In spite of arguments to 
the contrary, actual experience has shown that economic 
conditions tend to go backward where it is not possible for 
small farmers to own their own land; that the prosperity 
that attaches to large land holdings is not of a permanent 
duration; that under such conditions, sooner or later, the 
soil itself is worn out by reckless, unscientific farm meth- 
ods, and the landholder himself is at last impoverished by 
the very extent of his holdings. 

Inter-Racial Committees can do much to help the move- 
ment toward land ownership, by making it possible for Ne- 
gro farmers, with little or no ready cash, to secure land on 
such terms as will put a premium upon their own energy 
and thrift in making the necessary payments. 

Prison Labor: The revelations of the past few months 
of conditions that obtained on certain plantations in cer- 
tain sections of the South emphasize more strongly than 
ever before the injury to both planter and wage hands of 
the system of farming with such labor as the planter may 
obtain from prisons and through the courts by the payment 
of fines and fees for the offender. The very circumstance 
under which such labor is secured makes it almost certain 
that it will be unreliable and untrustworthy. The condi- 
tions must of necessity be irksome and unsatisfactory to 
the laborer, and the planter himself begins operations with 
a want of confidence in and often without a sense of obli- 
gation to the laborer, discounting at the outset the con- 
siderations of justice which should normally obtain between 
the employer and the laborer. In many cases, it were bet- 
ter all round for the guilty victim to suffer the normal 
penalty of the law than that his crime be exploited for 
economic advantage. The system of working out fines that 
have been paid by another has a tendency to make certain 
elements of the population think lightly of crime and the 
violation of the law, and affords also a temptation toward 
making arrests for trivial offenses or the condoning of more 
serious offenses in which the ends of justice cannot be at 
all adequately served by the payment of a fine. 

But not all effort for economic justice is to be confined to 
the rural districts. The towns and cities present their prob- 

37 



lems as well. Inter-Racial Committees may serve the ends 
of economic justice in larger centers of population by inter- 
esting themselves in conditions under which labor must be 
performed that are often unsafe and unsanitary both phys- 
ically and morally. 

Domestic Service: Negro women and girls engaged in 
domestic service in many, many instances are without ade- 
quate provision for their physical well being and comfort, 
and without proper moral safeguards during the hours of 
their rest and recreation. The women's Conference, under 
the auspices of the Inter-racial Commission, held at Mem- 
phis, Tennessee, last October, urged : "That domestic serv- 
ice be regarded as a vocation and that all necessary steps 
be taken to insure the health and cleanliness of those who 
engage therein and to provide adequate safeguards for the 
moral protection of the girls and women who make their 
homes on the premises of their employers." 

Wages: It is the generally accepted practice in the South 
that Negroes are paid a lower wage for their services than 
is paid the white employee for the same kind and character 
of service. This is perhaps nowhere more apparent than 
in the compensation of Negro school teachers, where we 
have the official records by which to make comparisons. 
Yet Negroes must meet living costs which have in no way 
been reduced for them because of their race and color. It is 
a mistake to assume that Negroes do not maintain or must 
not maintain the same standards of living as the parallel 
grades of white workers. An investigation of Negro homes 
would probably reveal the fact that Negroes very generally 
maintain standards of home life that are comparable with 
the standards of home life among white workers whose rate 
of pay is even very much higher. It is not commonly real- 
ized that those classes of Negroes who have come into touch 
with the best classes of white and those who have re- 
ceived the advantage of education are particularly aspir- 
ing in the matter of their homes and the conditions under 
which their families must be reared. They read newspapers 
and magazines; they visit the stores and the shops, from 
which they receive the same impulses toward higher stand- 
ards of living that come to their white neighbors; but be- 

38 



cause of their race they must accept a lower compensation 
for their services than is granted to others. In this con- 
nection, it should also be remembered that out of their pay, 
Negroes are often required to provide for themselves those 
facilities for recreation, for education and for public wel- 
fare that other members of the community receive from the 
public treasury, to which both black and white contribute 
as taxpayers. That a lower standard of wages should be 
maintained for Negroes becomes thus a double injustice. 
It is too much to expect that the Negro shall in all things 
measure up to the standards of the white man's civilization 
with less than the white man's pay. 

CONCLUSION 

It is not to be expected that these conditions may be 
rapidly changed or changed at all without painstaking ef- 
fort and persistence, but it should not be forgotten that one 
of the factors that led to the recent "exodus" of Negroes 
from the South — which continues in spite of wide-spread 
unemployment — was the fact that the Negro saw before 
him the opportunity to secure a just and adequate reward 
for his labor. A great many will probably stay where they 
can continue to receive it, and it is not unlikely that others 
will follow. It is well to remember that the plea for forty- 
cent cotton was based on the claim that it is impossible for 
the Southern farmer to meet the prevailing high cost of 
living with a lower return for his labor than is indicated in 
that price for cotton. The Negro worker faces the same 
conditions that face every other worker in America, with 
less of the advantages in many things that are enjoyed by 
others. Equal pay will not constitute a superior advantage. 

After all, economic prosperity is essential to progress. 
Economic justice is a primary condition to peace and con- 
tentment. Men in every period have borne oppressions and 
abuses with patience and fortitude as long as life itself, in 
physical well being and creature contentment, was reason- 
ably satisfactory. The Negro in America can hardly be 
charged with being over-ambitious in these matters. He 
shows a surprising degree of cheerfulness under adverse 
circumstances. He responds to justice, kindness and gen- 

39 



\ 



erosity; he makes surprising head- way with his limited 
resources. A larger measure of economic justice for the 
race will add to the peace and prosperity of the South. The 
Negro members of the local Inter-Racial Committees can 
give all the needed information of the difficulties, disadvan- 
tages and inequalities in such matters. They will, I am sure, 
be wise, patient and sympathetic in all efforts to secure 
adjustment. 



40 



SECTION IV. 

HEALTH AND HOUSING 

HOWARD W. ODUM 
Director School of Public Welfare, University of North Carolina 

Problems of Progress: Without good health and adequate 
housing, neither the individual nor the race will go forward 
as is becoming this day and generation. Progress as the 
important aspect of individual and community life will 
scarcely be achieved over the barriers of disease, poor health, 
wrong living conditions, death. The question is, therefore, 
whether progress shall be made or not; whether the com- 
munity of individuals and the community of races wish to 
set themselves to such forward-looking tasks of health and 
housing as will bring about happiness and welfare. It is 
largely a question of whether communities are in earnest 
or not. 

Health and Happiness: For long years men everywhere 
have talked of health and happiness as being in large meas- 
ure interdependent. Health, good health, has always been 
a reasonable goal for successful endeavor. This is true of 
young and old. It is true of rich and poor. It is true in 
America and Europe. It is true of white and Negro alike. 
It is true of individuals and it is true of groups and races. 
Good health is a necessity. And likewise, without good 
health, there is almost limitless range for unhappiness and 
misery. 

Health and Work: In like manner work is necessary to 
happiness and success. But work is often conditioned 
largely by health. There can be no full measure of work 
and success without its basis of fresh energies and abilities 
found in sound bodies and clean surroundings. The measure 
of an individual's or a race's output is often determined by 
the measure of good health. Likewise thousands and hun- 

41 



dreds of thousands of hours and dollars and wasted hopes 
are lost because of a poor basis in health. This is true of 
individuals and of groups and of races. The economic 
foundations may be easily undermined by the lack of health 
and health-giving conditions. 

Houses and Homes : Good homes are likewise necessary 
to happiness and success. But good homes are also con- 
ditioned by good housing conditions, which in turn condi- 
tion health and happiness and work. Sanitation and pre- 
ventive measures are the basis of the new health program. 
Sanitation is inseparable from housing and the home in the 
community. Good homes for the whites and good homes 
for the Negroes are closely related; bad housing for the 
Negroes and health conditions for white and colored alike 
are inseparably connected. The measure of individual and 
race success in happiness and work and progress must cer- 
tainly be conditioned largely by housing and homes. 

Community Problems: Of course there is agreement as 
to the importance of health and housing. But too long we 
have considered them problems of the individual. They 
are problems of the community as well. They are primarily 
community problems and cannot be isolated. There is no 
family or house in any community that can be isolated from 
the other inhabitants of the community. There is no known 
way by which a community can evade its responsibility for 
good health and housing conditions for all of its members. 
This is true of all groups alike. It is particularly true where 
health and housing conditions have been allowed by both 
races to become bad. 

A Problem for Both Races: In the considerable number 
of studies of health and housing that have been made they 
have always been found to be problems, not of one, but of 
two races. There is divided responsibility, it is true; but 
there is also joint responsibility. It will take the best 
efforts of both races in the promotion of more knowledge, 
more care and conscience, more plans and better programs, 
and more fidelity in standing by and working out the com- 
mon problems of the public good. It is not becoming for 
one race to say to the other, in substance: "Here this is 

42 



your job; attend to this housing question." "Here, this is 
your problem ; you must give us better health." Rather, it 
is for all the people working together to make better condi- 
tions. 

What is Needed: Many things are needed, many condi- 
tions must be met not all of which can be listed here, but 
there are certain minimum essentials to begin with: 

Community recognition of the problems at hand. 

More instruction and information. 

More definite planning and more definite legislation. 

More facilities for the prevention and cure of disease; 
that is, more clinics and hospitals. 
More money. 
More town planning. 

Helping Factors: What are the practical means of bring- 
ing about better health and housing conditions? Upon 
whom shall we call? What agencies and organizations 
stand ready to help? 

The citizen ; the every-day matter of fact occupant of the 
house and community. 

Health officials and the doctors themselves. 

Health nurses and clinics. 

Health centers. 

State and local laboratories. 

Teachers and educational leaders. 

Social workers. (Red Cross and Anti-Tuberculosis.) 

Ministers and workers in the church. 

Campaigns for better conditions. 

Health and housing demonstrations. 

Social hygiene efforts. 

Chambers of Commerce and community clubs. 

Industrial housing and health programs. 

Community plans for home financing. 

What to Do: What are the simple but immediate and 
practical projects to be undertaken in a community here and 
now? What is the conclusion of the whole matter? What 

43 



does it all amount to ? What are the probabilities of big and 
practical results, gradually but surely achieved ? 

First, of all, let the committee "size up" the situation. 

Make estimates of conditions and remedies. 

Have committees meet frequently together and go over 
the situation. 

Consult public health officials. 

Introduce medical inspection of schools and school 
children. 

Call on the state department of health to co-operate. 

Call on the Red Cross and other helping agencies to co- 
operate. 

Establish clinics wherever practicable and advisable. 
Introduce campaigns of promotion, education, and 
publicity. 

Encourage the training of Negro physicians and nurses. 

Promote the building of standard houses. 

Co-operate with "clean up" campaigns and days. 

Work out a community plan for health and housing 
services. 

Spread knowledge, and more knowledge, broadcast in the 
community. 

Take stock every month of the number of the above 
efforts that the community has undertaken. 

Provide for proper instruction of midwives, under the su- 
pervision of the county health officer. 

Provide community nurses. 

Provide hospital facilities for treatment of colored 
patients, practice of colored physicians and training of 
colored nurses. 



AA 



SECTION V. 

PROTECTION AND LEGAL AID 

BY PROFESSOR EDWIN MIMS 

There is no more important work for local inter-racial 
committees than to take every precaution against the pos- 
sibility of mob violence in their respective communities. 
In some sections the danger is always immient, in others 
probable, and in all possible. The average man does not 
think so, and may scoff at the idea that a lynching may take 
place in his community; and yet experience shows that in 
places where the danger seems least imminent such out- 
breaks have occurred. Whether we think of the larger 
cities, of the villages and hamlets, or of remote country 
districts, we may find illustrations in all of them of the out- 
breaking of the primitive passions of men in riots or in 
lynchings. Whatever else may be done to bring about a 
better relationship between the races and whatever con- 
structive measures or plans may be considered, it is a fun- 
damental necessity that violence or lawlessness of any kind 
should be prevented if possible. This is not simply a ques- 
tion that involves the Negro race but the entire structure 
of human society and civilization. 

THE MOB 

It is apparent that when conditions arise which may lead 
to lynchings or to riots the members of the inter-racial com- 
mittee ought to be the first to awaken to the seriousness of 
the situation. All that is needed sometimes is for the re- 
sponsible and representative citizens to let the officers of the 
law know what is expected of them and to bring such in- 
fluence to bear upon the mob as to cool their passions. 
Sometimes an opportune speech or, better still, a conference 
of the leaders of both races can avert the castastrophe. If 
local authorities and officers do not act with speed or with 

45 



courage, the Committee should immediately get in touch 
with the State authorities. 

If a mob accomplishes its purpose before the Committee 
has had time to act, then it is their duty to take aggressive 
steps to bring the guilty leaders of the mob to trial. They 
ought to make a complete study of all facts leading up 
to and concurrent with the actual lynching and not only pro- 
vide against a possible recurrence of such incidents but by 
backing up the legal authorities and even by employing 
special counsel they ought to do all in their power to apply 
the full penalty to the guilty. Committees in many com- 
munties have as a result of such a deplorable calamity 
awakened a community to the evil of certain conditions that 
have produced crime in the one race and led to violence in 
the other. It is a dear price to pay, but the lesson well 
learned may prove in the long run of inestimable service. 

But it is not well for a local community to wait till vio- 
lence is threatened. A lynching often occurs when all the 
best people of the community are unaware of the danger. 
It is then that the press expresses its condemnation, the 
pulpit thunders, and the best citizens all exclaim that such 
lawlessness does not represent the better sentiment of the 
community. Then the conviction grows upon them that 
something ought to have been done long ago to make im- 
possible such an occurrence. 



PREVENTIVE ACTION 

How then, may mob violence be anticipated? The Com- 
mittee ought quietly and tactfully to put squarely up to the 
mayor, the chief of police and the sheriff their duty if such 
a situation should arise; they ought to let them know that 
the best sentiment of the community demands the protection 
of life at any cost. But they ought to go further and de- 
mand that specific measures be taken that would meet any 
emergency. It is well, for instance, that jails should be pro- 
vided with adequate water hose, which has been found to 
be a very effective first step in the dispersal of a mob ; that 
in some cases a machine gun should be at the disposal of the 
officers ; that special reserve officers should be available ; and 



that as a last resort appeal should be promptly made to the 
Governor of the State for the proper defense of prisoners. 

There need not be in all of this any sort of alarm or 
panic or publicity at all; it is simply a common-sense way 
of providing against danger. All of these suggestions have 
been proved to be practical in many Southern towns. One 
reason why the lawless are so powerful is that they know 
their own mind, and that forces of law are overwhelmed 
because of the lack of ordinary precaution. Whatever ad- 
ditional cost might result from such measures would be 
but as a drop in the bucket compared to the financial effect 
on any community in which acts of lawlessness are 
committed. 

But even these measures of precaution are not sufficient. 
There should be every effort made by the Committees to 
build up a strong public sentiment of opposition to mob 
violence in any form or under any condition. The question 
is always up in the minds of the people because not many 
days pass without the news from somewhere of deplorable 
and atrocious lynchings. Anyone who has talked with 
a great variety of Southern people knows that apologists 
for lynching are found in every community and they are 
very loud in their expressions of sympathy. These shallow 
and dangerous statements ought to be counter-acted. It is 
especially important that in our churches, schools and busi- 
ness men's meetings every opportunity should be taken to 
create a healthy public sentiment that will condemn lynch- 
ing under any and all circumstances. A local committee 
that is alive to its responsibility will be prompt to take ad- 
vantage of every occasion in which this subject may be 
presented. A timely sermon has often awakened an entire 
congregation to the seriousness of the problem. An effec- 
tive talk before a high school or college student body, bring- 
ing out the facts with regard to lynchings in the United 
States during the past quarter of a century and explaining 
the dangers that are involved in this increasing lawlessness, 
might well be an event in the civic life of the community. 
Talks before business men's clubs by men who have con- 
viction have often changed thoughtless and indifferent cit- 
izens into men with a determined purpose to oppose any out- 

47 



break of lawless passion. It need hardly be said that the 
newspapers in a town and county should be instructed and 
led into right ways of thinking, if their editors are not 
already awake to the danger. 

Only by constant education over a long period of time 
will there be developed a healthy public sentiment that will 
gradually make lynchings impossible. The responsibility 
for such development of right opinion must rest largely upon 
committees that have constantly in mind all phases of this 
important question. 



INJUSTICE IN THE COURTS 

So far I have spoken only of the most aggravated form of 
lawlessness and injustice. A committee that is constantly 
on the job and especially when in conference with repre- 
sentative Negroes will find many instances of injustice that 
are perpetrated upon ignorant and helpless Negroes in the 
courts. Let any body of lawyers talk freely and frankly 
and there will be general assent to the proposition that the 
Negroes, especially in the lower courts, are often treated 
unjustly. Especially is this true in courts where the fee 
system is in vogue. 

The "loan shark" system is another grave form of injus- 
tice. To meet this situation in the larger cities it has been 
found necessary to employ a special attorney to give legal 
aid to the poor and oppressed of both races. 

Such conditions as have been recently created in at least 
one Southern state should cause all inter-racial committees 
to be on the alert as to economic injustice that results from 
the laxity of officers of the law and of courts. The oppres- 
sion of the Negro by farmers and merchants is a matter 
that ought to be constantly brought to the attention of those 
responsible for the organization of law. 

There is still another duty that rests upon these commit- 
tees. That is to prevent the intimidation and cruelties of 
groups which seek to deal with the Negro anonymously, 
outside of court and under cover of the night. 

The wide-spread condemnation of these organizations by 
the Southern press and by Southern leaders has been whole- 

48 



some and calls for quick and intelligent action by thoughf ul 
citizens. There is no need for any such secret conclaves; 
they can only lead to the very evils which they profess to 
cure. Once organized they lend themselves to oppressive 
measures. Never did General Lee's insistence upon the 
"allayment of passion, the dissipation of prejudice and the 
restoration or reason" seem so wise as at this moment in 
the life of the country. 

SUGGESTIONS 

(1) Visit and observe the petty courts making sure that 
the Negro is not imposed upon by the fee system. 

(2) Keep in touch with arresting officers, making sure 
that they do not make needless arrests. 

(3) Make sure that cruelty in arrest is discontinued. 

(4) Provide some form of free legal aid to the poor, 
either along the lines followed in Nashville, or by a voluntary 
association of the lawyers. 



49 



SECTION VI. 

RURAL RECREATION 

LUDWIG T. LARSEN 
Mississippi State Inter-Racial Secretary 

The instinct for recreation and play is natural in all races 
alike. And alike for all, its wholesome gratification makes 
for better health, better morals, better efficiency and greater 
contentment. Supervised recreation is now of such proven 
value that increasingly large provision is made for white 
children and adults. The need is even greater for Negroes 
both adults and children. 

The tendency of present economic movements is to give 
people more leisure. It is important that this time shall be 
used in such wise as to contribute to the welfare rather than 
the harm of the adults. The schools will hereafter need to 
train children for leisure as well as for work. Right play 
habits are as necessary as right habits of industry. 

Then there are the employed boys and girls whose recre- 
ational needs must be met after working hours, most com- 
monly at night. Unless provided with opportunities for 
wholesome activities these will attend dance halls and ques- 
tionable movies, or commercialized amusements of doubtful 
value, if not positively harmful. This applies more partic- 
ularly to cities. 

Furthermore, there is the great need of physical training 
revealed by war experience. And for some time to come 
the only system of physical education available for general 
use will be the play activities afforded by the school play- 
ground, with such instruction and supervision as the teach- 
ers may be able to give. To be of real value physically such 
activities must be organized and supervised. 

HOME LIFE 

Another aspect of the need is suggested by the following 
extract from a letter received from a prominent Negro 

50 



leader in one section of Mississippi. He expresses his appre- 
ciation and gratitude for the efforts being made for the 
good of his race, and then continues : 

"The agencies that are trying to help my people are really 
working in many instances in the dark. They are not doing 
enough to improve the HOME LIFE of my people. My peo- 
ple can never be made useful through the schools unless we 
link the homes with the schools more than we do." 

This statement suggests a field larger than the mere pro- 
vision of play for school children. Recreational facilities 
for adults constitute one agency for this linking up of home 
and school wherever the school house can be made a com- 
munity center, as will be shown in a later paragraph. 

PROMOTION 

In some localities these recreational needs have been rec- 
ognized to the degree that provision is being made for 
parks and community playgrounds. School houses are be- 
ing developed into community centers. Such provision will 
become more general as people awake to the great economic 
and moral value as well as the gain in the physical life of 
the colored people. Facilities for recreational life make far 
more for prevention of wrong than penitentiaries make 
for cure — and they cost less. 

Inter-racial Committees will find here one phase of a 
constructive program that will richly repay all efforts. De- 
tails and methods must depend upon local conditions and 
possibilities, but the following are a few of the more general 
suggestions : 

COMMUNITY CENTER AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 

The conviction has been growing among the white people 
that the investment in school building and grounds should 
yield larger returns than the mere use for the few hours of 
actual school session. Increasingly the school buildings 
are becoming social centers. At the present time no new 
building is considered complete unless it includes facilities 
for community gatherings : an auditorium with opera chairs, 
a stage, and sometimes a steropticon or a moving picture 
machine, or both. Some schools have shower baths, and 
even swimming pools. 

51 



The same principle should obtain in the case of the Negro 
schools and would yield correspondingly great results. This 
suggestion to use the school as a community center was 
made to the writer of the letter above quoted. He is a mem- 
ber of the County Inter-Racial Committee, and apparently is 
receiving most cordial cooperation from the white people. 
He is to have a new school building shortly which will include 
an auditorium and facilities for community center work. 
The white ladies of the town have raised a fund of $100 for 
the beginnings of a library in this school. 

Members of Inter-Racial Committees can render a great 
service by encouraging such uses of the school buildings, 
however meager in equipment, and by creating public sen- 
timent to include better facilities in all new buildings. The 
following will suggest a few uses to which the school build- 
ing can be put with little or no expense. 

Open Forum : Encourage regular meetings of the people 
to discuss their local problems and possibilities for improved 
efficiency. Such have been held with fine results, often with 
white leaders to share in the discussions and to judge the 
exhibits. 

Lectures and Demonstrations: By county agents, health 
officers, etc. Perhaps in some communities a Chautauqua of 
some kind can be arranged. 

Amateur Theatricals: These have an educational as well 
as a recreational value for both participants and audiences. 
Literary Societies: Debating clubs, etc. 
Concert and Musical Entertainments: By local or im- 
ported talent. The formation of choruses, orchestra, banjo 
club, etc. 

St ereopticon Lectures, Moving Pictures : These of course 
can be conducted only where facilities have been provided, 
or where portable apparatus can be secured. There is also 
some expense attached in securing films and slides, though 
many educational sets are becoming available with expense 
only for transportation. 

Library and Reading Room: Wherever there are public 
libraries it can often be arranged to have a branch library 
established in the school building. 

Other forms of community activity will suggest them- 
selves. Where overhead expenses need to be met, a nominal 

52 



entrance fee may be charged, but for best results every care 
should be taken to prevent the injection of the mercenary 
spirit or commercialized ideal. 

The value of such community activities for the general 
welfare is apparent. Another objective should be to pre- 
empt the field before the entrance of commercialized amuse- 
ments. UNSUPERVISED AND UNCENSORED COM- 
MERCIAL RECREATION MAY BECOME A SERIOUS 
MENACE. 

PLAY GROUND ACTIVITIES 

A service of far-reaching consequence can be rendered by 
the Inter-Racial Committee in encouraging the provision of 
an adequate playground for every school building. The 
patrons may be encouraged to provide simple playground 
equipment or the children themselves may raise the funds 
by entertainments, etc. Sometimes some of the equipment 
may be constructed in the manual training department of 
the school. 

But even with no equipment and meager space, much may 
be done by promoting mass play and games. Children are 
imitative and learn readily from demonstration, but need 
continued supervision until the rules and habits of play are 
established. Otherwise there may be undesirable modifi- 
cations of the games and a tendency to revert to rude 
"horseplay." Active participation of the teachers is essen- 
tial that there may be proper supervision and continued 
demonstration. 

The mass games are of special value in that, unlike the 
customary baseball and football, they permit the participa- 
tion of all the pupils regardless of differences of age and size. 

DIFFICULTIES AND HOW TO MEET THEM 

Few difficulties are met with in the introduction of mass 
play and only such as are easily met. 

1. Opposition of Parents: This is met with occasionally 
where the mistaken idea has been gained that play and 
amusements are irreligious. A tactful approach by a mem- 
ber of the Inter-Racial Committee or by the teacher or a 
Y. M. C. A. representative will usually dispose of this 
difficulty. 

53 



2. Competent Demonstration: Often there is no one to 
be found locally who can introduce these games. The near- 
est Y. M. C. A. Secretary will be glad to respond to the invi- 
tation to make a demonstration. After this initial demon- 
stration, the teachers can usually continue the work from 
printed instructions. 

Another method used is the encouragement of the Hi-Y 
boys to make it one of their service tasks to visit the nearby 
Negro schools and teach playground games. This has been 
carried out with gratifying results. 

3. Printed Instructions: Where such assistance is de- 
sired, it is suggested that a copy be secured of the "Army 
and Navy Physical Work," published by A. G. Spalding 
Bros., at a cost of only ten cents. Send to the nearest 
agency or to 130 Carondelet St., New Orleans, La. 

4. Ignorance of the Games on the Part of the Teachers: 

Their active participation at the time of the demonstra- 
tion and the assistance of the printed instructions above 
mentioned will enable the teachers to continue satisfactory 
instruction and supervision of the games. 

Another solution more fundamental for this difficulty is 
this : Provide for definite instruction in playground activi- 
ties as a part of the required course at Normals, County 
Institutes, etc. In Mississippi such instruction is being 
furnished without charge by members of the staff of the 
State Y. M. C. A. at the State and County Summer Normals. 

5. Handling Large Numbers: These games are usually 
taught the entire school at one demonstration. Usually a 
few of the older pupils are selected for the demonstration 
and the rest look on. Then the older pupils with the aid of 
the teachers instruct the other children. 

CITY RECREATION 

B. T. HARVEY, Jr. 
Morehouse College 

"Important as it is to organize and direct the industry of 
the world" says Geo. Elliott, "It is more important to orga- 
nize and direct the leisure of the world." "What use will 
humanity make of this leisure?" adds Maeterlink, "On its 

54 



employment may be said to depend the whole destiny of 



man." 



Already a growing number of large industrial corporations 
in this country have realized the value of supervised and 
organized recreation as an aid to the economic efficiency of 
their employees. The community at large must recognize 
and appreciate recreation as a thoroughly efficient means of 
decreasing juvenile delinquency, substituting ideals wanting 
because of lack of home life and control; as a stimulus for 
a cleaner physical life, and as an antidote for degrading 
motion pictures, vulgar vaudeville, questionable dance halls, 
dives, bootblack stands, camouflaged soft drink stands and 
the ambition-deadening influences of the public pool room. 
Those who employ help should not forget that 90% of the 
contagious and syphillitic diseases are contracted as a re- 
sult of misguided and unintelligent recreation. 

With this short word of explanation I wish to offer sug- 
gestions concerning supervision, organization and equipment 
for doing community recreation work in cities either in pub- 
lic parks, school playgrounds, or privately supported com- 
munity centers. 

SUPERVISION 

One recreational secretary should be available who can 
give his entire time to the work. Associated with him 
should be a number of volunteer district leaders picked for 
their personality, enthusiasm, physical, mental and moral 
fitness. Finally the district leader may divide his constit- 
uents into groups with group leaders. Working in coopera- 
tion with these district leaders may also be chairmen of 
auxiliary activities, such as committees on: Sanitation, 
Housing, Day Nurseries, Employment, etc. 

ORGANIZATION 

The city should be divided into districts of from 25 to 100 
square blocks depending upon the density of population and 
taking cognizance of any natural sociological divisions. 
Each one of these districts become a working unit, with a 
place of meeting and such private equipment as possible. 
Inter-district contests of various kinds should be encouraged 
as: Athletic, singing, debating, drilling, domestic science 

55 



contests. The district itself should be further divided into 
clubs, such as: men's clubs, mother's clubs, working boys' 
and working girls' clubs, boy scouts, camp fire girls, literary, 
etc. 

EQUIPMENT 

Each district should avail itself of a vacant lot from 25 
by 50 to 300 by 300 feet, and if possible on this lot should 
be erected a one-story building with the following general 
floor plan : Reading room and office or equipment room on 
the front, behind these a large room suitable for gatherings 
for motion pictures, speeches, demonstrations, etc. This 
large assembly room should be equipped with folding chairs 
and be available for use as a gymnasium on rainy days or 
during cold weather, although we should bear in mind that 
play out-of-doors is possible for at least ten months of the 
year and in the extreme Southern parts an all-year possi- 
bility. Behind this room, if possible a locker room with 
showers, and if a basement is under the building, it should 
by all means contain a swimming pool. The rest of the lot 
large or small may be used for recreation out of doors. In 
addition, use the street directly in front by getting a permit 
for making it, during certain hours of the day, a closed 
street to traffic. Such buildings as this with moderate 
equipment scattered over a city, I am sure will fill the widest 
possible radius of needs for the community. This building 
may be equipped with such of the following material as 
practicable and some of the more costly items, such as a 
portable motion picture machine, may serve for the whole 
city: 

Indoor baseball and bat, volley ball and net, basket-ball 
and baskets, medicine ball, boxing gloves, chest weights, 
dumb-bells, piano or graphophone, portable motion picture 
machine, etc. 

In conclusion let me add that it is not expected that all 
this equipment shall be put in at one time. Always be on 
the lookout for new material. And again all of this will not 
be suited for certain kinds of communities. The one motive 
which should guide in the selection is interest coupled with 
results of a beneficial character. Wherever possible the 
ideal solution is a public playground and park with gymna- 
sium and swimming pool, municipally given and supported. 

56 



SECTION VII. 



THE CARE OF DEPENDENTS 

BURR BLACKBURN 
Secretary Georgia Department of Public Welfare 

The time honored attitude toward the destitute Negro is 
calculated to press him further into pauperism. "Hand 
outs" of money, food and clothing, without constructive 
service, do not help the Negro to help himself. 

The first responsibility of the Inter-Racial Committee 
should be to make the local official and private agencies 
available to the service of the Negroes. This can best be 
accomplished by organizing groups of Negro leaders as 
supplementary divisions of the existing agencies; e. g. a 
committee of the family service agency, Associated Chari- 
ties, County Commissioners, Almshouse and Poor Relief 
Committees, Red Cross, etc., a committee on relief to look 
into the family conditions of Negroes confined in the jails, or 
those discharged, or juveniles in the care of the Juvenile 
court, a committee of a Parent Teachers' Association to 
look into the condition of the homes of the school children. 

These groups should be tied up to the similar white groups 
on the same basis that the Inter-Racial Committee is formed. 
In this manner the relief available through county poor 
funds, and private charity agencies may be reached and the 
Negro leaders have a share in the direction. Legal aid, 
public health and recreation activities all bear a close rela- 
tion to the problem of dependency and should be related 
through the same method of organization already mentioned. 

All this should eventually lead to the employment of a 
Negro social worker with qualifications necessary to guide 
the groups of the Negro workers in services of charity and 
neighborliness. 

The problem of employment needs special attention in any 
community. Standards of wages for men and women should 

57 



be carefully studied. A method of connecting the man with 
the job should be put on a business basis. 

What happens to the dependent Negro children of the 
county when their families break up? Are they passed 
around from family to family ? Are they placed in the poor- 
house together with the feeble-minded degenerates and old 
people ? Or are good homes found for them ? Are children 
being cruelly treated by their parents or guardians? How 
are the children of the mothers in service cared for during 
the day? Is there a day nursery under good direction? 
What are the conditions in the county almshouse ? Are the 
old people left without attention, recreation, or decent liv- 
ing conditions? How many Negro families are being ex- 
ploited by members of their own race or the white race with 
schemes of various sorts, support of mythical institutions, 
worthless insurance, etc.? 

Are tenants on farm land, or Negroes who are under some 
obligation to their employers being imposed upon, refused 
their wages or share in the crop? 

These are questions for the county Inter-Racial Committee 
to consider. Most of the States have a Department of Pub- 
lic Welfare, or similar official organization, at the State 
Capitol, which is ready to consult, advise, and assist com- 
munities in meeting these responsibilities toward the help- 
less and dependent. Invite them to send representatives to 
meet with groups and help perfect the organization neces- 
sary to safeguard the dependents and combat the germs of 
destitution and pauperism among the Negroes. 

SUGGESTIONS 

Confer at once with the leaders of organizations and 
home mission societies which give aid to the unfortunate 
families, the county officials in charge of Poor Relief and 
Public Welfare, and judges of courts and probation officers. 
Learn of their work and plans, offer to cooperate and bring 
others to cooperate. 

Arrange for the education of a promising colored young 
man or woman as a social worker and community leader. 

Make a study of all cases of dependency and poverty in 
the community — in the county — at the present time. 

Study the public treatment of the aged and infirm within 

58 



the last two years and plan for their comfort and recreation. 

Make a study of the Negroes on the County poor list, and 
initiate plans for their proper care and rehabilitation. 

Provide the courts with the necessary facts concerning 
the families and past history of Negro prisoners before 
their trial. 

Arrange care for the families of prisoners who are con- 
fined. 

Provide legal aid for families in civil matters, securing 
industrial compensation, drawing legal papers, etc. 

Study wages and employment and arrange a plan of em- 
ployment service. 

Organize to give attention to the needs of the homes of 
children whose difficulties may be discovered through the 
schools. 

Study the condition of children who are living in homes 
other than those of their own parents. 

Survey conditions surrounding children during the day 
while their mothers are in service and provide for them. 

Make a study of the cases of child misfortune and irreg- 
ularity now in the community or county. 

Survey the total efforts for child welfare and family re- 
habilitation in the community. 

Become acquainted with the state and county institutions 
for helping unfortunates. 

Visit the county almshouse. 

Study the organization and resources of the state's public 
institutions for public relief. 

Direct effective interest and support to some one or more 
of the institutions for colored in the State. 

See that every feeble-minded, blind, deaf or physically 
disabled person in the county gets full advantage of the 
state's institutions and agencies. 



59 



SECTION VIII. 



CARE OF DELINQUENTS 

G. CROFT WILLIAMS 

Secretary South Carolina State Board of Public Welfare 

Delinquency arises primarily from the inability of a person 
to adjust himself to his social surroundings. As our polit- 
ical and social order is extremely complex and requires a 
large amount of moral and mental stability, unless a person 
is normal in his desires and temperament or unless he is 
surrounded by strong family or class protection he is likely 
to become an offender. Many deeds that would go unnoticed 
in a primitive society are considered in a modern state as 
offenses against the public good. Mal-adjustment rather 
than any deep-set mean motive is largely the cause of crime. 
The Negro inmates of our Southern penal institutions are 
not professional criminals nor are they of an especially 
degraded type or character. Most of them are cheerful and 
kindly, being brought to their present condition by a fit of 
anger or a sudden childish desire to obtain clothes, food or 
trinkets by some other method than that of labor. There 
seems to be three main causes of delinquency among the 
Negroes. Other causes there are, but these are secondary 
and may be traced to the three primary causes. These 
primary causes are : 

First: The Negro's traditional background. 

Second: The removal of the Negro population from 
country to town. 

Third: Bad housing and living conditions. 

For countless ages the Negroes lived under a different 
social system in Africa, then they were snatched away and 
transplanted in the United States. They came with physical 
constitutions and emotions fitted to their tribal life. It has 
been difficult for them to adjust themselves to the Western 

60 



social and political systems. Added to this was their life 
as slaves. On the plantations the Negroes had few oppor- 
tunties for wrong doing, little attention was paid to small 
purloinings, unless the master was of an austere type then 
the culprit paid quick penalty. When freedom came the 
Negro started out on the treacherous sea of the 19th century 
American life with but little education or practice in self- 
restraint. After the Civil War there was a great influx of 
Negroes from the country to the city. In the city they 
found easily accessible centers of vice and they were further- 
more crowded into unsanitary quarters, with low moral at- 
mosphere. It is easily seen therefore that great obstacles 
lay across the Negro's path of advancement. Added to all 
these causes of real delinquency is the fact that unsympa- 
thetic and unscrupulous arresting officers too often arrest 
for petty offenses and exploit the Negro for fees which 
they receive on the basis of arrests and fines. 

TREATMENT OF DELINQUENTS 

Jail: The jail is the delinquent's wicket gate to our penal 
institutions. Here if he cannot give bond the prisoner re- 
mains in idleness for weeks or months, awaiting trial. A 
few jails are properly constructed and well equipped, but 
these are exceptions. Most of them are built for places of 
punishment, and, as such they are efficient. In two South- 
ern States, South Carolina and Alabama, jails are only for 
temporary detention; in other words, for persons that are 
yet innocent in the eyes of the law. And in other States 
many jail inmates are only detained for trial. So these in- 
stitutions should at least be comfortable and sanitary and 
provided with some means for amusement and improvement. 

Here is a need for activity on the part of Inter-Racial 
Committees. The average jail is not an exhibition of the 
citizenry's cruelty, but of their callous neglect. All pro- 
fessions of humanitarianism and of the sincere desire to 
make a better and happier world will echo back in hollow 
mockery so long as our present jails stand as their sounding 
boards. The jail should be visited by members of the com- 
mittee and if not in good sanitary condition reported to the 
proper authorities. 

Industrial School: In recent years juvenile offenders 
have not been treated as criminals, but have been con- 

61 



sidered as children needing better training than that to 
which they had been accustomed. Boys and girls that go 
wrong usually do so because of ignorance and the lack of 
proper home surroundings. Many of our States have there- 
fore set up industrial schools for these wayward youths. 
These should have facilities for academic, industrial and 
moral training. Oft-times the boys and girls that go to 
them are weakened physically, lacking nourishment, or ac- 
tually diseased. Such children should be given the proper 
physical care. Most of the Southern States have some kind 
of a school or reformatory for Negro boys, but outside of 
Virginia and Kentucky the writer knows of no state institu- 
tion of this kind for Negro girls. Inter-racial organizations 
have here a good opportunity for pressing a measure that 
would contribute to the betterment of the whole social 
order.* 

Penitentiaries: After the conviction prisoners are sen- 
tenced to the penitentiary or to some other place of servi- 
tude. Nearly all of our penitentiaries are devoid of any- 
thing but hard work and iron discipline. Books and papers 
are rarely supplied, academic instruction is seldom given, 
and the amusements are only those that the prisoners can 
devise. Sunday services are conducted by a chaplain who 
usually has the viewpoint of punishment for crime that is 
possessed by the prison officials. Yet it is not so much the 
details of the average penitentiary management that strike 
us as inadequate for purposes of reformation as does the 
whole grim and drab atmosphere saturated with hopeless- 
ness and the promise of failure. In most of the South, 
State penitentiaries are under no other special supervision 
than that of their trustees. This gives free reign to an un- 
limited autocracy, which is ofttimes without either mercy 
or a knowledge of criminology. Every State should have a 
Board of Charities and Corrections or of Prisons or of Pub- 
lic Welfare to supervise its penitentiary. 



* Footnote: Since this was written Tennesee has appropriated 
money for building such an institution. The white women aided in 
securing this appropriation. In South Carolina Inter-Racial Commit- 
tees have raised $20,000 for this purpose. 

62 



Prison Farm: Several Southern States have prison 
farms. Here the convicts work in the open air and have 
more healthful surroundings than at the penitentiary. 
There is no reason why this system should not be adopted 
and improved by all of our States. Florida has made a no- 
table beginning in this form of convict management. It 
has no penitentiary but sends its offenders to a central re- 
ceiving farm, where they are retained for farm work or are 
sent out to labor on the public highways. This Prison Farm 
at Raiford is a model of its kind. Recently the writer vis- 
ited it and found 490 inmates, many of them being crimi- 
nals of the worst type. There are no guns, guards, or walls 
about this place. At the time of this visit there were only 
seven employees, including the superintendent of the farm. 
The more intelligent convicts act as overseers and leaders of 
the squads of workmen. The honor system obtains here 
and there is an esprit de corps that holds the prisoners 
to the farm more securely than iron chains could. As we 
might expect, a bright and hopeful spirit, born of industry 
and trust, inspires the institution. 

Other Systems of Punishment : Besides the systems de- 
scribed in the preceding paragraphs, there are convict camps 
for road work and also gangs of prisoners that are leased to 
private enterprises. The utilization of prisoners on the 
public highways is beneficial to the State and to the priso- 
ners themselves, if the living conditions of the prisoners 
are properly attended to. There are county chain gangs in 
South Carolina that do not use shackles, and these chain 
gangs are the most efficient in the State. Experience shows 
that men can do more work when their limbs are free than 
when they are confined. Besides chains and other hard- 
ships the convicts endure on the road forces, they are often 
under brutal guards of a low mental and moral type. Be- 
cause of the small pay given to foremen and guards, often 
the only men that can be obtained are those that have failed 
at other occupations. 

The leasing-out system is indefensible, for contractors 
are merely interested in the men for what they can get out 
of them. It is true that many States that lease convicts re- 
tain their management, yet with the type of overseer and 

63 



guards that these States employ the zealous defense of their 
wards cannot be expected. In the outside world men are 
able to protect themselves from the oppression of their em- 
ployers, but a convict has no such liberty. 



SUGGESTIONS: 

The demands of modern treatment of prisoners call for a 
lessening of the attempt to punish and an increase in efforts 
to reform. There are four general needs in line with this 
modern practice : 

1. That jails and penitentiaries cease to be merely places 
of confinement and become more and more places where 
special work and instruction are given. This does not in 
any way mean that criminals should be coddled. 

2. Crime prevention begins with family case work in 
disorganized homes — hence one of the main prevenitives to 
be employed is the building up of Negro homes along the 
lines suggested in Sections on Health and Housing. 

3. The value of education as a means of preventing crime 
needs no elaboration at this point. 

4. There is need of much stronger sentiment of respect 
for the law. If we are going to live together in a civilized 
state it is necessary to have certain rules that all must re- 
spect and keep. When a man commits a crime he places his 
personal desires above the law, his own will above the good 
of the community. There is a nation-wide need for in- 
creased use of every possible means of cultivating a greater 
respect for the law. 

Inter-Racial Committees should support legislation and 
organization which are effective in promoting any of these 
four general methods of crime prevention and reformation 
of criminals. 

The more specific suggestions for the activity of com- 
mittees are: 

(1) Have sub-committees visit the jail at regular inter- 
vals and report its condition to the proper authorities. 



64 



t>D 10.4 



(2) Study the system of making bonds and paying fines 
by employers. 

(3) Study the care of prisoners on probation or parole. 

(4) Find out if there is a functioning juvenile court in 
the county, or whether the law is violated by placing young 
boys in jail with hardened criminals. If no such court ex- 
ists, take the matter up immediately with the County Judge, 
or Circuit Judge. 

(5) Find out if there is a juvenile probation officer, and 
if not endeavor to have one employed. 

(6) If the number of colored cases is sufficient to war- 
rant it, endeavor to secure the employment of a trained 
colored probation officer. Experience has shown that they 
are more effective in investigating and reaching the home 
conditions which invariably surround juvenile delinquency. 

(7) Investigate the institutions to which the courts 
commit boys and girls from your county. 



65 



ORGANIZATION HINTS 

I. Nothing kills interest in the committee as quickly as 
failure of efforts to get a meeting. For this reason, each 
committee should have a vice-chairman who can hold the 
meetings in case the chairman is ill or out of town. 

II. Definiteness of responsibility and action are much to 
be desired. For this reason : 

(1) Simple by-laws governing membership, meetings, 
and sub-committees should be adopted. 

(2) In case the committe decides on something to be 
done they should always designate a sub-commit- 
tee or individual to do it ; or should give the chair- 
man power to act. The discharge of all such du- 
ties should be reported to the next successive 
meeting. 

(3) From time to time, it might be desirable to add 
new members to the committee. For this pur- 
pose a membership nominating sub-committee is 
suggested. 

(4) When several matters are to come up at the 
same meeting, a program sub-committee might 
determine their order of discussion and the man- 
ner of presenting each. Such a committee 
could have charge of securing occasional outside 
speakers. 

(5) The influence of the committee should be as 
nearly as possible county-wide. The county 
chairman should give this careful thought and 
bring it before the general committee. One se- 
rious riot has occurred which might have been 
averted if the committee had realized that its 
field embraced the whole county rather than only 
the principal town. Individuals and sub-commit- 
tees should be apprised of the Inter-Racial pro- 
gram, and be asked to report needs and happen- 
ings in their community to the central county 
committee. In this way, the committee can meet 
the needs of the whole county and line the whole 
county up behind any county-wide project. 

66 



III. Regularity of meetings assures activity. Some 
committees meet quarterly, some monthly. It is desirable 
that meetings be held at least quarterly in order to maintain 
friendly contact if for no other reason. There are always 
so many community needs well worth meeting that each 
meeting should attempt to start some constructive move 
even if it be merely to have the jail purchase a hose, to have 
the school repaired or a play-ground equipped. 



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